Today is Thursday; 23rd of the Iranian month of Ordibehesht 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 5th of the Islamic month of Sha'ban 1437 lunar hijri; and May 12, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1399 lunar years ago, on this day in 38 AH, Imam Ali ibn al-Husain Zain al-Abedin (AS), the 4th Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), was born in Medina. As a 23-year old youth, he was present in Karbala when history's most bloodcurdling tragedy took place, but could not take part in the combat because of being bedridden due to high fever. It was the Will of God that he should survive and wage a unique Jihad whose course traversed the courts of the tyrants in Kufa and Damascus. He triumphed in captivity by shaking to its very foundations the illegal caliphate of Yazid through a series of brilliant sermons that forced the tyrant to release the noble Ahl al-Bayt. His lasting legacy to humanity are his supplications to God that range from purification of spirit and self-reform to social and political issues, as well as scientific facts such as the weight of light – factors which were unthinkable in those days. The “Sahifat-as-Sajjadiyya” is a firm testimony in this regard as well as the “Risalat-al-Hoqouq” – a treatise that contains details of each and every right and far more comprehensive and realistic than the UN Charter of Rights.

1124 lunar years ago, on this day in 313 AH, the famous Iranian Islamic physician and chemist, Mohammad ibn Zakariyah Razi, passed away at the age of 62. Born in the city of Rayy, he initially followed his father's profession of a goldsmith, before turning to chemistry in addition to honing his skills in other sciences, such as medicine, geometry, logic, and philosophy. He wrote almost 250 works in different scientific fields, including “al-Hawi”, “al-Mansouri”, and “Sayrat al-Falsafiyah”.

1109 solar years ago, on this day in 907 AD, General Zhu Wen forced Emperor Ai into abdicating the throne, thus ending the Tang Dynasty of China after nearly three hundred years of rule. He established himself as emperor of the Later Liang Dynasty, and ushered in the era of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, since despite his conquest of much of central China, most of Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Hebei remained outside his reach.

1094 solar years ago, on this day in 922 AD, Ahmad bin Fadhlan became the first Muslim envoy to arrive in the lands of the Bulgars and the Vikings, north of the River Volga from the Abbasid court in Baghdad. His account of his travels which has been published in several languages including the original Arabic, provides a description of the Volga Vikings, including an eye-witness account of a ship burial. The day of his arrival is an official religious holiday in modern republic of Tatarstan in the Russian Federation. Ibn Fadhlan also gives an excellent description of the Russian tribes, who until then had not become Christian and were pagans.

1013 solar years ago, on this day in 1003 AD, Gerbert d'Aurillac of France, who later became Pope Sylvester II and inspired by Latin translations of Islamic scientific works, introduced to Europe the Arabic numerals of the famous Iranian Islamic scientist, Mohammad ibn Musa Kharazmi, died. He extensively utilized Islamic scientific works to build for the first time in Europe clocks, the hydraulic organ, astronomical instruments, and the abacus for use in mathematical calculations. It is said that he began to lead Christian Europe out of the Dark Ages, thanks to his study of Islamic sciences.

506 solar years ago, on this day in 1510 AD, Zhu Zhifan, the Prince of Anhua of Shanxi, began his rebellion during the reign of his great-grand-nephew, Emperor Zhengde of the Ming Dynasty of China, by inviting to a banquet many senior officials and then killing them with the intent of declaring himself emperor. On 30 May, his rebellion was put down and he was taken to Beijing where he was executed on the orders of Emperor Zhengde, who had invited many Muslims from Iran and Turkestan to serve as advisors and envoys at his court. Works of art such as porcelain from his court contained Islamic inscriptions in Arabic and Persian.

374 solar years ago, on this day in 1642 AD, the 6th Safavid Emperor of Iran, Shah Safi, died at the young age of 31 after ruling for 13 years, and was succeeded by his son, Shah Abbas II. His real name was Sam Mirza, and he was the son of Mohammed Baqer Mirza, the eldest son of Shah Abbas I, and his Georgian wife, Dilaram Khanum. In 1629 he succeeded his grandfather, Shah Abbas I. An inefficient ruler, Shah Safi ruthlessly eliminated anyone he regarded as a threat to his power, and paid little attention to the affairs of government. He had no cultural or intellectual interests either, preferring to spend his time in addiction to opium. He, however, abhorred tobacco smoke like his grandfather, going as far as to have those caught smoking tobacco in public, severely killed. The dominant political figure of Shah Safi's 13-year reign was Saru Taqi, appointed grand vizier in 1634. Taqi was incorruptible and highly efficient at raising revenues for the state. Iran's foreign enemies took opportunity to exploit Safi's perceived weakness. The Ottomans made incursions in the west in 1630 and 1634 (briefly occupying Revan and Tabriz) and in 1638 they succeeded in seizing Baghdad from Iran. Nevertheless, the Treaty of Zuhab which ensued in 1639 put an end to all further wars between the Safavids and the Ottomans. Apart from the Ottoman attacks, Iran was troubled by the Uzbeks and Turkmens in the northeast, and lost Qandahar in what is now Afghanistan to the Mughal Empire of the Subcontinent in 1638.

204 solar years ago, on this day in 1812 AD, Edward Lear, English artist of nature and landscape works who is better known as the creator of limericks and nonsense poetry, was born. As a draughtsman he illustrated birds and animals, and during his journeys used to make coloured drawings, which he reworked later, sometimes as plates for his travel books. He was hired as an illustrator by the London Zoological Society, and his precise and vivid drawings of parrots were published in 1832 in the book “The Family of the Psittacidae”. As an author, he is known principally for his popular nonsense collections of poems, songs, short stories, botanical drawings, recipes, and alphabets. In 1846 he composed “A Book of Nonsense” for the grandchildren of his patron, the Earl of Denby.

196 solar years ago, on this day in 1820 AD, British social reformer, Florence Nightingale, who founded the modern nursing practice, was born in Florence, Italy to English parents, and was named after the city of her birth. The family moved back to England the next year. Her contributions to public health included developing methods of applying and displaying statistics to demonstrate the need for improvements. Her mission began from experience during the Crimean War as a nurse at British hospital in Turkey. There she witnessed appalling conditions endured by the sick: overcrowding, poor sanitation, lack of basic supplies, and even malnutrition. By the war's end in July 1856, she improved the comfort of the patients, increased efficiency and reduced the death toll. Inspired by Unitarian religious ideals she devoted her life to serving others, and continued to advocate reform in the military medical system, by providing novel graphical display of statistics and advice on hospital planning and organization.

194 lunar years ago, on this day in 1243 AH, following Qajarid Iran's defeat in the second series of battles in the Caucasus with expansionist Russia, the Turkmenchai Treaty was imposed on Fath Ali Shah with the mediation of the British colonial officials, on the threat that failure to accept will result in the march of Russian troops upon Tehran. As per this one-sided treaty, Iran handed over to Russia, the Erivan khanate or most of present-day central Armenia, the Nakhchivan khanate, which is the present-day Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan, the Talish khanate, the Ordubad and Mughan regions of what is now the Republic of Azerbaijan, in addition to all lands seized by Russia some fifteen years earlier, such as Georgia, Daghestan and other parts of the Caucasus. It is to be recalled that initially these battles, led by crown prince, Abbas Mirza, were in Iran's favour but lack of support from Tehran resulted in disastrous defeats. In the aftermath of the war and signing of the humiliating treaty, anti-Russian sentiments became rampant in Iran, and on February 11, 1829, angry people stormed the Russian embassy in Tehran and killed almost everyone inside including the newly appointed ambassador, Alexander Griboyedov, who was part of the team that drafted the Turkmenchai Treaty.

135 solar years ago, on this day in 1881 AD, France occupied Tunisia and declared it as its protectorate, thereby ending the sovereign rule of the Hussainid Dynasty as nominal representatives of the Ottoman Sultan. Thereafter the Hussainids, who were descendants of Hussain Ibn Ali, the Muslim general of Greek origin from the island of Crete, continued to merely reign in name until 1957, when Tunisia gained independence from France and the dictatorial regime of Habib Bourqiba ended monarchic rule. Islam had entered Tunisia in the 2nd half of the 7th century AD and in 670 the Great Mosque of Qairouan was founded. Two-and-a-half-centuries later Tunisia became the seat of power of the Fatemid Ismaili Shi’a Muslim Empire with the founding of the city of Mahdia in 921. In 1534, it was taken over by the Ottoman Turks to thwart Spain’s bid to occupy it. On 14 January 2011, the Islamic Awakening ended the 54-year rule of the anti-Islamic regime, and in the first-ever popular elections that followed, an Islamic oriented-government was formed.

106 solar years ago, on this day in 1910 AD, British biochemist and discoverer of important molecules, Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin, died at the age of 84. Born in Cairo, Egypt, she developed into an X-ray crystallographer, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1964 for her discoveries of the structure of biologically important molecules, including penicillin (in 1946), vitamin B-12 (in 1956), and the protein hormone insulin (in 1969). Her achievements included not only these structure determinations and the scientific insight they provided but also the development of methods that made such structure determinations possible.

38 solar years ago, on this day in 1978 AD, Iranian weightlifter Hussein Reza Zadeh, was born in Ardebil. He is a former world and double Olympic champion in Olympic weightlifting. He is also a world record holder in the clean and jerk and considered as one of the greatest weightlifters of all time.

37 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, following the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Iran annulled forever the “Capitulation Bill” that was imposed by the US on the Pahlavi regime on immunity of American nationals. In 1964, the British-installed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, had entered into a humiliating capitulation treaty with the US by granting American citizens all immunity against crimes they commit in Iran – a measure that was strongly denounced by the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA) that led to his exile from Iran. Capitulation was enforced as a law subsequent to the Russo-Iran Wars of the first half of the 19th century. It was first imposed on Iran by Tsarist Russia through the humiliating Golestan and Turkmencha' Treaties. Thereafter, Britain and other European powers compelled Iran to grant them special rights and privileges. In 1921, a day prior to the coup in Iran against Ahmad Shah Qajar, the Soviet Union had unilaterally cancelled the Tsarist colonial institution of capitulation treaties, including the 99-year treaty with Iran. Six years later in 1927, in order to mislead the Iranian people, who loathed him for his anti-Islamic policies, Reza Khan passed a spurious decree on supposed revocation of the capitulation treaty period, mainly pertaining to the Russian treaties that had already expired, but immediately sent letters of assurances to the British, German, American, and French embassies in Tehran, acknowledging their capitulation rights over Iran and the Iranian people.

13 solar years ago, on this day in 2003 AD, Prince Sadruddin Agha Khan, the French-American diplomat and art collector of Iranian origin, died at the age of 70 of cancer in Boston, USA, and his body was conveyed to Switzerland, as per his wish, and buried with full diplomatic honours. Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France to a French mother, he was the second son of the self-styled Imam of the Ismaili Nizari sect, Sultan Shah Mohammad Agha Khan, whose mother was a granddaughter of Fath Ali Shah the Qajarid king of Iran. Sadr od-Din used to describe Iran as the cradle of his family, though he never lived in Iran. He held French, Iranian, and Swiss citizenship, and was fluent in French, English, German and Italian, while also speaking some Persian and Arabic. He travelled widely with his father, and started a long international diplomatic career by joining the UNESCO and retiring as Chief of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). His bid for election to the UN Secretary General’s post was thwarted by the US, because in his trips to Iran and Iraq during the 8-year imposed war, for finding solution to the issue of war refugees, he had become greatly impressed by the dynamic personality of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA). Sadr od-Din assembled one of the finest private collections of Islamic art in the world, including a priceless collection of paintings, drawings, manuscripts and miniatures. His collection is vast and diverse, and includes Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Indian pieces dating from the 10th century onwards. An example is a Qur’anic page of North African origin written with gold lettering in the Kufic script – it is more than 1,000 years old. His full collection is to be housed at a new museum being built by his nephew, Karim Agha Khan, in Toronto, Canada.

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2008, a 7.9-magnitude earthquake jolted southwestern China, claiming nearly 87,000 lives and injuring 380,000 others. This natural disaster also made millions of Chinese homeless.

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